(Ottawa) Closing Roxham Road is what “we all want”, but the solution lies in the renegotiation of the Safe Third Country Agreement, insists Justin Trudeau, who faces increased pressure from François Legault in Quebec and Pierre Poilievre in Ottawa.
After receiving a missive from his Quebec counterpart urging him to put an end to irregular arrivals of migrants at Roxham Road, then being summoned by the Leader of the Official Opposition to close the Montérégie crossing within 30 days , the Prime Minister pleaded that there was no easy way out.
” Close Roxham Road, that’s what we all want. But there is no simplistic solution in that, ”he hammered Wednesday at a press briefing on the Ontario side, reiterating that it was essential, to resolve this delicate issue, to renegotiate the ‘Safe Third Country Agreement with the United States.
“Could someone put up barricades and a big wall?” Yes ; if Pierre Poilievre wants to build a wall at Roxham Road, someone could do it. The problem is that we have 6,000 kilometers of unmilitarized border with the United States,” he continued.
Without speculating on what changes he would like to see in the bilateral pact with Washington, he mentioned that during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the road was blocked, there was “a model in place that was reasonably effective “.
And we have made “real progress” in the talks that have been going on for “several months” with the United States, said Justin Trudeau, who is preparing to receive US President Joe Biden in Canada somewhere in March.
The Prime Minister insisted on the fact that Quebec was cooperating in an exemplary manner on this issue.
But in Quebec, precisely, François Legault taps his foot. In addition to having sent a missive to his vis-à-vis the federal government on Sunday, he published an open letter in the daily The Globe and Mailwhich first appeared online on Tuesday, then in the paper edition on Wednesday.
The leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, Pierre Poilievre, echoed this impatience, summoning Justin Trudeau to close the road “within 30 days”. The federal Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, Sean Fraser, quickly dismissed this request out of hand.
Because in the absence of a plan “to deal with the consequences”, blocking Roxham Road “will not solve the problem”, because “it will only encourage other irregular passages”, he said in a written statement forwarded by his office.
Minister Fraser then attacked the ideas of the Leader of the Official Opposition, which are “not only reckless”, in addition to lacking “depth and understanding”, while Canada “is working to navigate through a global migration crisis”.